The bridge deflector shield was probably directly covering the Bridge and not the Tower...

"THE FRONT OF THE SHIELD DEFLECTOR SHIELD IS OUT"

for instance would be more accurate.

As for the two shield generators no doubt they covered the entire ship, however my guess is the shield deflectors were completely out on the executor...they were just destroying the generators so they couldn't regenerate.

Bib: if the fighters were under the shields, why weren't they attacking the bridge directly?! Piett would have already intensified forward firepower if the swarming starfighters were under the shield...

Charlemagne: but that's not what they said, is it?

Also, the Executor has at least four visible sets of paired domes...

But if you're saying the shields were already down, you're now admitting that the 'attack the domes to bring down the shields' idea in the EU is wrong...

And if we discount all instances of that 'tactic', what's left to say that the domes are shield-generators? Ultimately, the idea is based only on an untenable interpretation of the destruction of the Ex...

Actually, messieurs, careful examination of the scene in question demonstrates quite clearly that the shields of the flagship, HIMS Executor, were not, in fact, brought down by starfighter attacks on the domes whose function is under contention, but that the shields were already disabled.

Consult your copy of the novelisation of Return of the Jedi:

Chapter VIII:

The captain left. An aide approached.

?Forward ships have made contact with the Imperial fleet, sir.?

?Concentrate your fire on their power generators. If we can knock out their shields, our fighters might stand a chance against them.?

Chapter IX:

The Falcon plunged to the surface of the Death Star, followed by hordes of Rebel fighters, followed by a still-massing but disorganized array of Imperial TIE fighters?while three Rebel Star Cruisers headed for the huge Imperial Super Star Destroyer, Vader?s flagship, which seemed to be having difficulties with its guidance system.

and

Ackbar stared wild-eyed out the observation window. He was looking down onto the deck of the Super Star Destroyer; only miles away. Fires burst out over the entire stern, and the Imperial warship was listing badly to starboard.

?We?ve knocked out their forward shields,? Ackbar said into the comlink. ?Fire at the bridge.?

Green Leader?s group swooped in low, from bottomside, up from the Death Star.

?Glad to help out, Home-One,? called Green Leader.

?Firing proton torpedoes,? Green Wing advised.

The bridge was hit, with kaleidoscopic results. A rapid chain reaction got set off, from power station to power station along the middle third of the huge Destroyer, producing a dazzling rainbow of explosions that buckled the ship at right angles, and started it spinning like a pinwheel toward the Death Star.

The first bridge explosion took Green Leader with it; the subsequent uncontrolled joyride snagged ten more fighters, two cruisers, and an ordnance vessel. By the time the whole exothermic conglomerate finally crashed into the side of the Death Star, the impact was momentous enough to actually jolt the battle station, setting off internal explosions and thunderings all through its network of reactors, munitions, and halls.

Thus, a short summary of the battle may be made, combining the combat scenes shown in the film itself and the more detailed description of the battle in the novelisation.

First, the rebel fleet opened fire on the Imperial Star Destroyers, which did not return fire. Remember, this is at the beginning of the battle, before the Destroyers actively engaged the rebel fleet. The rebel fleet was at this time deliberately attempting to disable the line of battle ships? defensive screens, in order to allow starfighters to attack them with some semblance of success.

Admiral Ackbar then gave orders to close to point-blank range?a range to which the lighter gunports of the Calamarian cruisers were far better suited for action than the monstrous gun turrets on Imperial Star Destroyers.

Once the Death Star?s defensive shield was disabled, three full-fledged cruisers, marginally comparable to Star Destroyers in capabilities despite inferior armour and guns, moved to engage the ailing flagship, HIMS Executor. Admiral Ackbar shortly thereafter gave orders that the fleet should concentrate all firepower on the flagship.

Here is where the confusion enters into the situation.

The novel clearly shows that the rebel starfighters moved en masse toward the Death Star, only to return to give support to the ships of the line in their attack on the flagship. The film shows A-wings delivering what many perceive to be the coup de grÃ¢ce to the flagship. Integration of the sources reveals something most interesting.

The A-wings, part of Green Leader?s group, returned from the Death Star, after Admiral Ackbar announces that the forward shields have been disabled and that the bridge is vulnerable. Green Leader and Green Win

Thrawn McEwok- "Bib: if the fighters were under the shields, why weren't they attacking the bridge directly?! Piett would have already intensified forward firepower if the swarming starfighters were under the shield..."

Okay, I think that the whole shield things is reeaaaallly confusing and sources probably contradict one another, but I'll try and answer that.

We are aware of two forms of defensive shielding- ray and particle.

What if the PARTICLE shielding is HULL-CONTOUR-CONFORMING whereas the RAY SHIELD is A BUBBLE, not hull-contour-conforming.

THEN, the rebel fighter slipped under the bubble of the ray shielding, took out the particle deflector shield generator and then this allowed the a-wing to smash into the bridge.

That any better?

And maybe the two domes are like this

Left dome- ray shield generator- generates the energy for the entire ray shield bubble.
Right dome- particle shield generator- generates the POWER used to supply various subsidiary shield projectors around the ships, such as a bridge deflector shield, bow shields, aft shields etc...

Howzabout this, Sturm - in battle, the ISD uses its main sensor array primarily to angle the deflectors against incoming fire... we know from ANH that deflectors can be 'angled', or switched to 'double front', channeling most or all of their power into only certain parts of the deflector grid...

A single 'shield projector' (which is something different from a shield generator/sensor dome) can project a local shield of almost unimaginable strength, but even an ISD's stardrive is unable to produce enough power to give all the shields anything like their theoretical maximum strength any one time...

This channeling of power to a single projector is 'generating' a shield, as opposed to simply 'raising' the shields (I've never heard anyone in SW say 'generate shields!', or anything like it)... and so the sensor domes are called 'shield generators'...

If the deflector domes are damaged, so is the 'shield generator' system, and the deflectors are much weaker at point-of-impact, making it much easier to damage the ship...

Now all we have to do is explain exactly why this is called 'generating' a shield...

Sounds good to me. I just don't want to negate any sources of any kind, including various blueprints that list the domes as being "shield generators" ( which we'll think of as shield projectors if need be. )

And we all know that the blueprints can't get too detailed. We can think of many ideas and theories to fill in the gaps of an ISD's schematic.

ok the shield domes are on the top to properly project the shield which form a sphere which is mentioned in NJO countless times. next the ssd have 3 generators 2 in the normal spot and one in the middle ( i think).

Again the idea is that they are sensor domes just doesn't make any sense.

Actually, the idea does make sense, considering that they look like radar domes on modern warships, and are in analogous positions. The USS Enterprise CVN-65 has domes almost identical on its conning tower.

Piett discovering the weapons and shielding systems were unprotected by fire as they should be scrambled to keep the ship under control.

Actually, the flagship began suffering from major, noticeable guidance control failure prior to engaging three rebel star cruisers. The difficulty experienced by the flagship had nothing to do with lack of protection, and everything to do with an internal failure.

The shields went down as they executor's heavy turbolasers and weapons against the main fleet were knocked out by precision fire.

The shields were disabled, and the entire stern was badly damaged, with flames venting from sections of the superstructure. By the time the shields were disabled, the flagship was already in bad condition. The shields were already down prior to the re-entrance of the starfighters, exposing the flagship to considerable ship of the line turbolaserfire.

The Shield generators were targeted to be destroyed and one overloaded along with concussion fire.

Admiral Ackbar had already issued orders to the fleet to concentrate fleet firepower on disabling power generators in order to enable the starfighters to damage ships of the line. In other words, this was not done by starfighters, but by capital ships.

A A-wing hoping to hit the shield towers or bridge itself kamakized into Piett's room.

Don't be preposterous, monseigneur. Green Leader clearly and deliberately collided his interceptor with the command deck; the chances of his starfighter accidentally approaching at the angle it did are effectively nil. The attack on the flagship's bridge was always intended as a kamikaze attack.

Suddenly losing the altitude controls as it was caught in the Death Star's gravity the crew was unable to operate the secondary bridge (in my games ISDs have them) and it collided with the construct

Again, don't be preposterous. The Death Star II did not have that much gravity---in order to influence so massive a body as the flagship in so short a time, the Death Star should have to have incredible mass... and would have extremely detrimental effects to the atmosphere of the Sanctuary Moon.

Gravity has nothing to do with the collision; the flagship was clearly described as listing badly to starboard when the command deck was destroyed, and the guidance controls were malfunctioning. The flagship was already manoeuvring toward the Death Star II when her bridge was hit, and continued that manoeuvre, accelerating due to considerable damage done to her power systems.